Sex in the City: Porn Turned into Art by French Artist Olivier Coulange

There is no difference between art and eroticism… or so used to claim Pablo Picasso. In Sex in the City, Olivier Coulange’s photographs are a case in point. Taking shots from unsophisticated porn movies, he transforms them into alluring and evasive sensual images. Fascinating…

Curated by Virginie Syn, Sex in the City features a selection of photographs by French artist Olivier Coulange, from his series Eros Plastic, which showcases the successful and surprising metamorphosis of porn into art. Porn’s crudity and vulgarity fade away under Coulange’s signature blur, which is conceived as a sweetening veil to reveal sensuality rather than raw sex, allowing subtlety and beauty to prevail through nude floating images.

Interestingly, the artist worked from actual pornographic films, setting up his camera in front of the TV screen to capture an image, resulting in a play between shadow and light: “For me breaking the images of pornography is an intellectual game, explains Coulange. With Eros Plastic I am tracking unseen gems in those oceans of ugliness, as my own quest for beauty”.

Olivier Coulange has been part of the renowned Agence Vu in Paris since 1992. His work has been published and exhibited worldwide including at the prestigious Rencontres d’Arles, Visa pour l’image.

Sex in the City at Sky Lounge, Nido Spitafields 9 Frying Pan Alley E1 (Liverpool Street Tube), until 31st December